Drown
by Hibiki Hikari
Summary: When one person is missing, the whole world seems empty. -Gruvia [Implied Gajevy]


**I wrote this a while back so I'm sorry if it's a bit jumbled. This account looked pretty empty so I just decided to post this.**

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"It's all just a nightmare.." That's what Gray kept telling himself. "Just.. a nightmare."

Because seeing Juvia wrapped in bandages, lying in a hospital bed with unsteady breathing and tear stained cheeks was mere torture and torture usually happened in nightmares. Or, so that's what Gray believeー used to. For just as he returned to his apartment from work, expecting to see his best friend/crush/stalker sitting on his couch, making herself cozy, ignoring the fact she did not live there, he didn't see her. There was no trace of her around his place. No trace of a that lilac and chamomile scent she always had linger in her hair and on her clothes; No traces of salt and vinegar chip crumbs on the kitchen counter.

Levy, the eldest sister of Juvia and a friend of Gray, sat at the foot of the bed. Messing with a strand of her azure hair. Her hazel eyes stared at Juvia's unconscious state and Gray could have sworn the light in the woman's eyes had diminishedー that wasn't normal. Levy's fiancé, Gajeel, was standing behind her, rubbing her back while he held her free hand, his thumb caressing the back of her hand in a caring, comforting manner; a rare side of him to be seen.

Gray interlocked his own hands together, the cold feeling of his palms creating a chill to the tips of his fingers.

 _Three days._

It had been three days since the accident.

It had been three days since Juvia's been unconscious.

It had been three days since _she'_ s been gone.

"Just 'cause she's unconscious doesn't mean she can't hear you," Levy would whisper to Gray with a cracked voice, giving away the ache she was feeling emotionallyー yet she managed to keep herself calm and collected. However, the way Levy's hazel irises stood out from the rest of her bloodshot eyes and the dark bags under her eyes, had shown she couldn't keep strong behind closed doors.

When Gray would keep his eyes on Juvia, counting how many times her chest would rise and fall as she breathed through the horrid oxygen mask and tubes that were helping her stay alive, he gently played with her fingers.

He wondered if she felt like a tabby cat trapped in a cage. Unable to move, all bruised and battered, with strangers sticking needles in her skin.

He wondered if she knew what her current state was.

He wondered if she remembered the accident. The Flashing Lights.

Gray listened as Levy spoke to Juvia. Her petite hands cupping Juvia's left frail one. "It's going to be okay, you hear?"

 _Beep..._

 _...Beep._

"It's.. It's going to be.." Levy closed her eyes and whispered a small goodnight to both Juvia and Gray before stepping out of the room.

* * *

Gray held his breath, as the doctor jotted down notes. The room fell silent while the beep-beeping of the heart monitor was still going. Levy was stressed. Gajeel was at work so there really wasn't anyone to calm her for Gray usually made things worse.

Levy was sitting in a chair on the other side of the hospital bed, where Juvia was resting. The petite woman constantly rubbed her eyes and wiped her nose with tissue as she read a packet of document papers.

"Was it difficult?"

Gray looked up.

Levy rubbed her left eye, "Was it tough, Gray, for you and your father.. to.. to arrange your mother's funeral?"

He leaned back in his chair and found interest in the nearest wall. "Sort of."

"..."

"It was mostly hard for my father. After all, he and my mom..ー they were High School sweethearts.."

"I see.."

"Yeah."

Five days since the accident had rolled around and Gray found himself with restless legs and a racing heart. Levy was outside the room calling for a nurse with mixed emotions spilling from her eyes.

Juvia was consciousー _awake_. Her eyes were open slits but in the hospital room's fluorescent lighting, it was easy to see her pupils. It seemed she was having trouble trying to open her eyes with the light and the fact they've been closed for nearly a week was understandable to why it was difficult.

She let out a cry of pain as she tried to change her posture but Gray placed a hand on her's, attempting to calm her and stop her from squirming.

* * *

"Miss Lockser, you were in a car accident."

 _What?_

"According to reports, you were with your younger sister."

 _Wait_..

 _Wendy?_

 ** _Oh god._**

 _Please say Wendy's okay.._

"She was pronounced dead at the scene."

 _No.._

"I'm sorry for your loss."

 _ **Shut up.**_

"Please accept my condolences."

 **Stop.**

* * *

Juvia never looked great in the color black while she stood in the rain in an area where it smelt of wet grass and soil, Gray had noticed. Nor did Juvia look great with a forming scar across her left cheek because it reminded her of what she- nobody would have ever expected.

But she's still beautiful.

Juvia refused to cry. She refused to shed a tear. She refused to look at the casket which held her beloved little sister's lifeless body.

Gray thought of Juvia's giggles, her smiles, the way she talked in third-person, and how she added honorifics to certain names. He thought of those drunken kisses she would leave on the corner of his mouth after they had one too many drinks in his apartment on Friday nights. He thought of those mornings where they'd find each other lying next to each other with nothing but sheets and blankets covering their bodies then how they'd just brush that aside and fall asleep again until two in the afternoon.

However, now, none of that happened. For Juvia stayed in his apartment, afraid to stay in her own. She slept in his bed, terrified to be alone. She screamed in her sleep and Gray had to wake her up and hold her close, rocking her slowly as her body trembled. She yelled into his chest about what she remembered that nightー the yellow taxi she and her sister were in, the traffic, the big rig; the glass shattering and metal reshaping.

Her harsh sobs were constantly drowned out by the sound of rain hitting the bedroom window each night.

From then on, Day by Day, she ate less and less. She began to sleep for twelve hours, sometimes more. There were even days when she didn't leave the room. She denied to drive and she denied to get into any source of transportation with anyoneー even Gray.

Gray took time off work from the Pharmacy he'd been working at because Juvia wasn't able to walk through fire of mourning on her own. He wanted her to tell him she's struggling. He wanted her to tell him she's scared. Hell, he wanted her to tell him she's scared of life. Even if he already knew she was. She was drowning in an ocean of sorrow and guilt. And Gray tried to break apart the waves to bring her giddy, bubbly self back in but her hand kept breaking through the surface of it all then she was gone againー sinking deeper.

Nobody knew if she was going to be okay, in the end.


End file.
